⚓ Did you know…

… that a saloon passenger, Oliver P. Bernard, aboard RMS Lusitania reported to the Daily Telegraph that he had crossed paths with the radio operators during the tragic sinking of the vessel?

He had reached the ship’s top deck next to the funnels when he crossed over to the starboard side and observed the two wireless operators desperately sending out their SOS.

Mr Bernard’s account continues:

“One of the operators [Leith] offered me a swivel chair to go down into the water. His colleague [McCormick] took out a pocket Kodak and going down on his hands and knees on the deck, which was now at an angle of about 35 degrees, took a solitary snapshot of the scenes forward. It would have been a wonderful photograph, but the film was destroyed in the water.”

Saloon Passenger Henry Burgess also encountered the wireless operators at this time taking photographs of the sinking. This is his recollection:

“As for myself, I went to the Marconi house and asked if a message had been got away. The operator said ‘Yes, but you had better get hold of this, old man, (throwing me an office chair), as you may want it.’ I did not take the chair but I went over to the starboard side and saw that now the water was nearly up to the level of the boat deck. The Marconi man came out of his office at that time and began to take photographs, which struck me as a cool proceeding. I don’t know whether he saved himself and his photographs.”

Luckily, both wireless operators, Mr. Robert Leigh and Mr. David McCormick, survived the sinking.

By: Jake Billingham

Sources: The Lusitania Resource

Photo credits: Peter’s Lusitania Page/Mr. David Craig McCormick

Kodak Pocket Camera photo credits: Science+Media Museum

Edited by: Nick DeWitt